Like many fans of the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” I am waiting eagerly for the release of Jon M. Chu’s new movie, “Wicked.”
The film, set to be released Friday, Nov. 22, stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. It is based on the same 1995 book that inspired the 2003 Broadway musical starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.
It is set to be pretty comparable to the famous musical by playwright Winnie Holzman and musical composer Stephen Schwartz. The 2024 film will even have a similar soundtrack, according to Variety.
I grew up listening to “Popular,” sung by Chenoweth, never realizing that it was from the hit musical until promotion for the film started to wind up on my feed. It is exciting to know that Grande will be gracing our ears with the familiar lyrics on the movie’s soundtrack in less than a week.
The upcoming film, like the book and musical, will share the moving backstory of Elphaba, the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West, following her as she comes of age in Oz. She faces discrimination due to her green skin color, meets historic people like Galinda Upland and the Wizard, engages in important research at Shiz University and most importantly finds a cause that she wholeheartedly believes in — personal rights and autonomy.
The film has already had its fair share of media attention ahead of its release — from Today reporting Erivo’s criticism of an online movie poster edit, to a report from NPR sharing that a porn site was accidentally linked on every Mattel “Wicked” doll’s packaging.
The Badger Herald was able to reach the author of the original book, Gregory Maguire, about what to expect from the adaptation from a reader’s perspective. Maguire told The Badger Herald his 1995 book was 30 years in the making.
“Just 10 years shorter than the time it took L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ published in 1900, to be translated into the famous MGM film in 1939,” Maguire said. “Since I also didn’t write ‘Wicked’ until about 30 years after I began to play the story out in my childhood backyard with my siblings.”
His mention of the nostalgia factor of “Wicked” definitely resonated with me. So many of us grew up watching Dorothy, Toto and their three friends traverse the Yellow Brick Road with nothing but dreams in their pockets.
Maguire emphasized his excitement in expectation of the film.
“I feel that walking through the dark theater toward Jon Chu’s portrait of Oz will dazzle me, just the way Technicolor Munchkinland dazzled Dorothy Gale when she stepped from the newspaper gray of Kansas into that Pantone paradise,” Maguire said. “What’s worth having is worth waiting for.”
